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In a letter to the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Fred Hiltz describes the major issue facing us today.“The Anglican Church of Canada needs to become a mission-shaped Church that speaks with greater relevance to an increasingly secularized country.”(Read the full text of Archbishop Fred’s letter here.)

Fresh Expressions Canada isdelighted to see that our leaders recognise this need as being the major issue that faces us, and is committed to doing all it can to see the church become more Jesus-centred and mission-shaped.

In the current issue of “expressions”, the e-newsletter of Fresh Expressions in England, Bishop Graham Cray writes,

“One of the most common misunderstandings about fresh expressions is the belief that they are new types of worship service. It is an understandable mistake as worship lies at the heart of the life of the church, and fresh expressions are new congregations or churches, (not rebranded or experimental church services). There is also an honourable stream within, and pre-dating, the Fresh Expressions initiative, called ‘alternative worship’. However, our recommendation is that the shaping of an act of worship normally lies near the end, rather than at the beginning, of the planting process.

There are a number of reasons for this. Ideally fresh expressions are planted following a process of prayerful listening, and making relationships through acts of service. But if the initial point of contact is a worship event it can only be one which it is hoped the relevant people will like, rather than one which they are involved in shaping, or which we can shape for them with greater care, because we know them. There is also a danger of self indulgence, of creating an event which suits us, or which relieves the frustrations we have with the worship in our own church. ‘I like it so they will as well’ is not the way to plant. What Mission-shaped Church called ‘dying to live’ challenges us to sacrifice our preferences for the sake of what is appropriate for others. Finally it is likely that the result will be an event to attend rather than a church community to which to belong. If there is no intention to form a new congregation, it is not a fresh expression ‘of church’.

To begin with worship may be feasible for the de-churched, who retain a memory of what church was like (up to the point they decided to leave!), but it is less likely to be appropriate for the largest part of our adult mission field, those who have never been involved before. For many worship is culturally strange. They don’t have the toolkit for worship. They don’t know the Biblical story. They only community sing at football matches and they don’t understand our vocabulary. With them we have to start much further back.

Of course, if a fresh expression is planted by transitioning an existing piece of work in the community, then the listening, serving, community forming and witnessing have probably already taken place. In which case you are not starting with worship, but introducing it at the right time. A culturally appropriate, recognisably Christian practice of worship, including baptism and holy communion, is the aim for all fresh expressions that hope to endure, but mostly it is a later development, not the starting point.

The landscape of the church is changing and we are faced with a culture that has, “less knowledge of the faith,” with each successive generation. Through a dynamic presentation full of startling statistics to General Synod 2010 on Monday, June 7, members were encouraged to consider new approaches to the environments they minister in.

As of September, students registering for the M.Div program at Wycliffe will have two choices: the regular M.Div, to train to be a missional leader of an existing congregation, and the pioneer M.Div, to train to begin new ministries, churches, and fresh expressions of church.

The two streams will do the same foundational courses in Bible, theology and history. But students in the pioneer stream will also have specialized courses and placements to prepare them for their future ministries.

On Saturday, April 10th a Fresh Expressions Vision Day was hosted by First United Church, Waterloo, Ontario. It was a great day with fifty-five lively participants who represented ten churches. Included were folks from United Churches in the Hamilton Conference, Anglican Churches from the Huron Diocese and the Diocese of Fredericton NB (Dean Kevin Joyce) and a Presbyterian church! The day was ecumenically led by the Rev. Paul Miller (First Grantham United Church, St. Catharines) and Sue Kalbfleisch (FXCA Vision Day Coordinator, from the Anglican Diocese of Niagara).

Many thanks to Nancy Lennox, who coordinated the day at First United and to everyone on her team who made the day such a success… and the lunch and snacks were yummy as only ‘church folk’ can do!

If you are interested in hosting a Vision Day in your area, please contact Sue.

“Fresh Expressions is proof the church is not dying,” Archbishop Colin Johnson, metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, is quoted by Kristin Jenkins in her editorial, “Don’t touch that dial!”, in the March edition of the Anglican Journal. Read the complete piece here.